ch."

The others also identified their relative and friend as he sat quietly
smoking and waiting for the boat to make her landing. At length he
arose and came to the staging--a rather slender, bronzed man, with
very brown face and eyes wrinkled at the corners. He wore an
engineer's garb of khaki and stiff-brimmed white hat.

The three boys took off their hats and gave a cheer as they saw him
standing there smiling.

"How are you, Uncle Dick?" they all cried; and so eager were they that
they could scarcely wait for the gang-plank to be run out.

Their uncle, Mr. Richard Wilcox, at that time employed in the
engineering department of one of the Dominion railways, laughed rather
happily as he bunched them in his arms when they came ashore. There
was little chance for him to say anything for some time, so eager were
the boys in their greeting of him.

"Well, you're all here!" said he at length, breaking away to shake
hands with Alex and Moise, who smiled very happily also, now coming up
the bank. "How have they done, Alex?"

"Fine!" said the old hunter. "Couldn't have been better!"

"This was good boys, all right," affirmed Moise. "We'll save her life
plenty tam, but she's good boy!"

"Did you have any trouble getting across, Alex?" asked Uncle Dick.

"Plenty, I should say!" said Alex, smiling. "But we came through it.
The boys have acted like sportsmen, and I couldn't say more."

"I suppose perhaps you got some game then, eh?"

All three now began to speak at once excitedly, and so fast that they
could scarcely be understood.

"Did you really get a grizzly?" inquired Uncle Dick of Alex, after a
while.

"Yes, sir, and a very good one. And a black bear too, and a moose, and
some sheep, and a lot of small stuff like that. They're hunters and
travelers. We gave them a 'lob-stick' to mark their journey--far back
in the Rockies."

"Well, Alaska will have to look to its laurels!" said Uncle Dick,
taking a long breath and pretending not to be proud of them. "It seems
to me you must have been pretty busy shooting things, from all I can
learn, young men."

"Oh, we know the country," interrupted Rob, "and we've got a map--we
could build a railroad across there if we had to."

"Well, to tell the truth, I'm mighty glad you got through all right,"
said Uncle Dick. "I've been thinking that maybe I oughtn't to have
let you try that trip, for it's dangerous enough for men. But
everything's well that ends well, and here